{Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books. I, therefore, own no parts of this save for the characters of Andromeda McGee and Wyvern the Cat who are figments of my own imagination.}
{This chapter contains violence, torture, and a bit of rape. It's rather dark, just as a warning to those that read it.}
Chapter 12
Cold Face Of Darkness
Severus Snape lay motionless on an ornate black and green bed. A cool breeze that signified the imminent end of summer tickled the dark window hangings. It reached the sleeping man and he shuddered slightly then lay still once more. Nothing was moving.
As sudden as a flash of lightening, the Slytherin bolted upward, grasping his left forearm. He glanced down at it to reassure himself that the Dark Mark was glowing red and fierce, then looked away to make certain that no one was near. Grabbing his wand, he pulled on a clean set of robes with his cloak and mask in hand. A short note was penned to Dumbledore, stating only that he had gone out and would hopefully be back shortly if he did not get sidetracked. Dumbledore would understand the meaning. To any one else, it might seem like a normal note giving the whereabouts of a person. To Dumbledore, it would say that by 'going out' he had been summoned to Lord Voldemort and by 'will be back shortly if he did not get side tracked' he would return as soon as permissible if he was not injured or if he could not do so immediately. Snape took off from his rooms, stalking through the empty, quiet halls, through the doors and into the woods, where he was free to Apparate away.
The doors to the Dark Lord's throne room opened as he approached them. Severus took only enough time to don his robes and mask before he entered. A small group of similarly garbed figured stood around their Master, waiting for their orders. He took his place in the back as a few other members appeared around him.
Lord Voldemort sat stiffly in his gilded throne of serpents and gems. His long, twisted fingers lay curled over the arms. Only two, red, glowing eyes could be seen out of the cowl he wore. "Bow to me," he hissed softly. The entire group dropped to their knees, bringing their heads to the floor in homage. "I have summoned you here tonight in order to complete a task for me. There is a rather annoying Muggle village a few miles from here that is not of my liking. I want all its inhabitants destroyed."
"Yes, Master," a cumulative answer echoed from the covered lips of the groveling figures, not bothering to question their Master's orders. What did they care if a couple Muggles died? Muggles were worthless anyways.
"Now go!"
Everyone sprang to their feet and rushed to the doors.
"Severus, stay. I have other plans for you."
Snape stopped mid-stride and turned back to his Lord. He said nothing and kept his head bowed, though he did not go back to his knees. It was unknown to him what Voldemort might want with him. There was a fifty-fifty chance that it could be a good thing or a something that could make him a corpse. He hoped that he would not be gruesomely tortured, especially with a new semester beginning in only a few days' time and his new position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. He honestly did want to be alive to for the first day of classes.
"Yes, Severus, I have plans for you," Voldemort repeated in an ominous voice. His eyes shone darkly through the hood, seeming to gaze into the depths of Snape's soul even without eyes contact. "You have given me many things in the past: your loyalty, your blood, your poisons, your immense knowledge of the Darker Arts. Now there is something else I require from you, something that I can use to my advantage over those against me. Your position at Hogwarts has granted me access to those that lead the people against me. With you I have been able to keep track of Dumbledore and Potter." He spat the name as if it were a foul taste in his mouth. "Now there is one other at Hogwarts that I need you to keep an eye on: Andromeda McGee."
"Yes, Master."
"I need you to do more than just watch her and inform me if anything interesting comes about. You see, Severus, I want only the best on my side because in the end it is always the best that wins. McGee is one of the best; therefore I want her alliance to be with me, not Dumbledore and especially not Potter."
"Yes, Master."
"I have already made certain that there are no others to interfere with my plans. The other two idiots that she was friends with have been, shall we say, done away with for the time being. Get her loyal to you then bring her to me."
"Yes, Master."
"Now go join your brothers. I want that town destroyed tonight." The Dark Lord pointed his ebony wand at Snape, sending him to the small village.
Destruction had already begun. The Muggles knew nothing of fighting against magic. They ran from their houses, panicking in complete chaos. It was so easy for the Death Eaters to simply point a wand, utter a word and send the nearest person into painful convulsions. To make it worse, most of them enjoyed inflicting the Muggles with various forms of suffering.
Snape watched from the shadows for a moment. He knew that he should join in the task, but something made him stay back. Something in his heart told him not go, not to murder innocent people. No, he had to go. The other Death Eaters would notice his absence and report it back to Voldemort. That would not be very good at all. He could try to save a few people or at least end their lives before they suffered too much. He stepped out from the darkness into the street.
A tiny boy in pajamas with tears streaming down his face ran up to him. He began to beat the Slytherin with his fists, chanting over and over again, "You killed my mommy! You killed my mommy!" Snape gently shoved him aside and kept walking.
A larger man stood up from the side of the road where he had been crouched over a newly dead body. Another Death Eater had obviously been here, yet had only killed one of the three members of the household. The man noticed Snape and growled menacingly. "You killed my Jenny, you fucking bastard! I'm going to kill you!" The man raced over, a large crowbar gripped tightly in his hands. He swung it at Snape's hooded head.
Snape moved his torso slightly out of the way and raised an arm to block the other man's arm. Using his attacker's momentum, Snape guided the man onto the asphalt. The crow bar skidded across the pavement into a ditch on the side of the road. He pinned the man's arms behind his back, pinning him to pavement at the same time. The man struggled gallantly, but he was no match for a trained Death Eater.
"Listen to me if you want to come out of this alive," Snape hissed in his ear. The man lay still. "I, personally, did not kill you wife; someone else did. If you stay here, both you and your son are going to die as well. I will let you go, but only if you promise me that you will run as far away from here as possible."
"We will," the man muttered. He knew what was good for him if he valued his life and the life of his son.
Snape stood up. "I will count to ten then something will explode, looking like you died. Go!"
The man looked at him strangely for a moment, not seeming to believe that this man would simply let him go after what had been done to his wife, his Jenny. He had been forced to watch in horror as a group of three figures dressed in the same way as the man who was now offering him the freedom to live had grabbed her from the street where she was waiting for the dog to come back in from its nightly trip outside. Someone had first killed the dog by burning it to death with a fire that would not go out no matter how hard it tried. His Jenny had loved that dog and would have done anything to protect it. That had been her downfall. He had watched from the doorway as Jenny had raced out the door to the fallen animal, where flames still soldered on its battered body. She had taken the garden hose and tried to put the fire out but nothing succeeded. The dog died a few moments later.
The three men realized that they now had a new victim, a human victim that would scream and suffer much better than the mutt they had killed already. One of them had pointed what looked like a stick at her. He had learned that it could not have been an ordinary stick when a bolt of purplish light exploded from the tip of it towards his wife. Jenny froze in place and the men snarled at her. One of them began by removing her clothes while another had pulled up his robes to undo his own pants.
At that point he had raced out the door, flannel bathrobe, flying like a cape behind him. He had grabbed the crow bar from next to his van. Thankfully he had forgotten to put it away when he was using it earlier in the day. He swung it at one of the men, only to find himself feet away and unable to move, though he could see every thing that happened around him. The three men in the black robes proceeded then to rape his precious wife as he was forced to watch. He wanted to tear his eyes away. He wanted to leap up and stop them from completing the horrible act that they were doing. Yet, he could not do anything to stop what was happening.
Jenny had attempted to struggle out of her attackers' grips but could not. All three of the men had his turn with her. When they were finished, one pointed his wand at her. Another burst of light of a different color shot out. Jenny began to writhe in pain. She screamed out in agony. Once again, there was nothing he could do for her. He struggled against his own bonds, finding no way out.
Finally one of the men pointed his wand at her again and spoke a simple word. Her cries ceased suddenly as if the life had been taken out of her. She collapsed on the grass by the end of the driveway. He could not see her chest moving any more.
The men laughed in a way that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. They had released the spell on him, knowing that he would be over come with the grief that some one he had cared about had been raped and murdered before his eyes. The trio of men left suddenly, leaving him alone with his dead wife. He had smoothed the thick brown hair away from her pale face and closed her eyes with a gentle touch of his hand.
His young son had come outside a few minutes later. Michael was only five, yet he, too, had to witness the terrible death of his mother, though from his bedroom window instead of a few feet away. The boy began to cry and his father held him close.
The other man in black had approached from the woods across from the house. Michael had run up to him and started beating him with his tiny fists. The man had tried to stop him, but it was of no avail. He didn't want the same thing to happen to his son. He picked up his crow bar once more and swung at the man in the dark robes. The man had somehow disarmed him and pinned him to the pavement of the road. Now the same man that looked like the murderers that had come before him was willing to let him go free.
He stood up, brushing the stones quickly off of his pants. "Thank you."
Severus replied only with "One."
The man took one last look at his savior, seeing no face behind the mask. He scooped up his son in his arms and rushed into the woods away from the town. His sister lived about a mile away if a person cut through the woods. By four, he disappeared completely from sight. Snape finished the count just to be safe and blew up the collection of trash cans that were sitting next to the house's garage. Those were replaceable; lives of innocent people were not.
Snape glanced over to where the dead body lay. Jenny, that was what the man had called her, looked only like she was sleeping. No more pain marred her face from whatever the other Death Eaters had done to her. She reminded him of a sleeping angel. Her face held a serene, innocent beauty despite after what she had gone through. He touched her gently on the forehead, wishing that he could have saved her like he had saved her husband and son. He knew there was nothing that he could have done, but wished it all the same.
Most of the time playing the double-sided role in life has its consequences. There are only a few moments when it brings happiness, though few and far apart. This was a war of the innocents, not just between the forces of Good and Evil or Dark and Light, but of the bystanders that accidentally happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and never deserve to die. That's what they were fighting for: to protect those that never deserve to die.
{Author's Note: Well, that was depressing, wasn't it? Oh, well. It was amusing to write. I apologize for not posting in a while. I was after school until about 7ish for one week, then the next, I was after from 5:00 until 10:30 for the first three days. Thursday March 13th was my 17th birthday and the in-school performance of Les Misèrables and Friday and Saturday were the actual performances. On top of that we had a cast party after each performance, lasting until about 2:30 in the morning both times. The cast parties were fun. Mind you I have a week and a half break before the next play starts, though it should not be as bad Les Misèrables, which was hell, especially with all the fake blood for the death scenes. Now that was fun. Any ways, we should be getting Road Runner tomorrow, so that may make my life a bit easier. My e-mail will stay the same for those wondering.
Lunatic: Boredom and I do not get along very well.
Anna Black: It gets worse: we're ditching AOL and getting Road Runner. The petition sounds like a wonderful idea.
Shas Perino: It was just an odd chapter, that's why. And yes, Peanut Butter Smidgeons.
Peace, Love, and More Peanut Butter Smidgeons because I finally got a box of them, Nataly Ravenlock}